One of the most famous comedic shticks of the greatest late-night host of all-time, the incomparable Johnny Carson, would start with a statement about some extreme condition – e.g., "It’s awfully hot here in Burbank today" – leading to the inevitable follow-up question shouted from the audience: "How hot is it?" The answers which followed are the stuff of legend, like “It’s so hot, I saw a chicken lay an omelet.”
So, let’s follow that theme, and observe that things look bad for this 46th president of ours. How bad is it? Well, so bad that David Axelrod, chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, felt compelled to write a pleading piece in The New York Times entitled “It’s Not Over for Joe Biden,” protesting a bit too loudly. It’s so bad that left-wing New York Magazine felt compelled to serve, almost literally, as unpaid publicists for the hapless chief executive after another of his statements about COVID-19 – “there is no federal solution … this gets solved at a state level" – with the attention-generating headline, “No, Joe Biden Did Not Just Surrender to the Omicron Variant.”
These are somewhat akin to a headline like “No, Joe Biden Does Not Beat his Wife” or “No, Joe Biden is Not Senile.” And it actually brings to mind and further accentuates the recent head-shaker by Vice President Kamala Harris, proving her somehow even more inept than the president. She responded to an obviously sarcastic question by an otherwise friendly interviewer, Charlamagne Tha God, on whether the president is Joe Biden or Joe Manchin, with a serious answer: Joe Biden … as if the question was meant to be answered. And if that wasn’t cringe worthy enough, she went on to proclaim, as if it was new news, that her name is Kamala Harris and she is vice president of the United States.
Good to know.
Madame Vice President, one of the fundamental rules of politics is that you don’t repeat the charge of your opponent, particularly the most insulting barbs. If you are accused, for example, of being a pedophile, you should not respond with an answer that can become a soundbite for the ages, “I am not a pedophile.” President Richard Nixon created that exact trap for himself by proffering a statement, “people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook,” and then answering his own question with a response which has echoed down through the last half century: “I am not a crook.”
Indeed, the two in charge at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue these days are appearing incapable of managing their own affairs. And the White House staff is apparently unequal to the task of translating Biden’s actual words into his intended words, or deflecting unrelentingly negative attention away from the vice president, so elite media has stepped in. But there is a difference in the coverage from the early days of the Biden presidency, as reflected in the NY Magazine headline and accompanying narrative, which was far more effective than the administration’s own uneven communications. Elite media realize their task is no longer just to defend this president, but to try and explain him. That there are still leftist outlets willing to do so is the good news for this administration. But there is bad news aplenty from a growing number of professional leftists panicking at the collapsing approval numbers of both Biden and Harris.
Joe Biden (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
As the leading advocate for the removal of Donald Trump by any means necessary, it seems the folks at the old gray lady may be facing a crisis of conscience – not that they would e ver admit it. Longtime Trump critic Bret Stephens opined recently that Biden, who would be 82 years old in 2024 and 86 if he makes it through a second term, should stop the growing mountain of murmurs about his evident decline and incompetence by announcing right now that he will not seek re-election: “I put these questions bluntly because they need to be discussed candidly, not just whispered constantly.” And Stephens avers that Biden’s foibles are no longer amusing to his fellow Democrats: “Joe Biden’s memory lapses were a source of mirth among his Democratic primary rivals, at least until he won the nomination.”
The Times’ op-ed writer is hardly alone in his sentiments. Chris Cillizza, former ace political reporter for a prominent Washington newspaper with deep ties to the left who now serves as editor-at-large for CNN, has not yet gone as far as those calling for Biden to limit himself to one term. But he has hardly done much to hide his growing gloom over the fate of an administration which he and his fellow leftist journalists moved Heaven and Earth to get elected. On the heels of his recent column headlined “Joe Biden’s Polling Malaise Continues,” Cillizza put forward a not-so-subtle hint that the jig is up for this president with a video piece titled “The 11 Democrats Who Could Replace Joe Biden in 2024.”
So, there are still some people and outlets willing to go above and beyond the call of duty in not just defending Joe Biden, but effectively writing press releases and explainer videos which should rightly be delivered by the White House, in an effort to salvage the sinking ship. But how long will it be until the rest of the leftist media follow the Trump-hating, Biden-loving souls at the old gray lady and the most trusted name in news and finally admit this administration is doomed?
~ Read more from Tim Donner.
